Physical Anxiety for hours without thoughts / fears

[Rmortensen84]

Hi I am familiar with anxiety / ocd / depersonalization from childhood I have recovered most of it and am reasonably stable today. But sometimes I get anxiety attacks with purely physical symptoms that last for hours but without thoughts - Do others know this?

The symptoms can be:

Breathing difficulties
Palpitations
Choking sensation
Hyper ventilate
Anger

These symptoms have been coming on and off for as long as I can remember and can last for hours. I do not think it fits on Panic attack or GAD although I sometimes have many worries but they are not related to my anxiety attacks. I do not believe when they say that anxiety can only last 30 minutes at a time as I can have it for hours - Others out there?

(I am a trained mechanic and have all my life been plagued by this basic anxiety which runs in the background and it has given me stress to a degree and made me work fast to forget the anxiety / restlessness in my body - Which resulted in a severe bout of depersonalization which was resistance to treatment and took 5 years to recover from. And today receives early retirement.)

 

[Cuchculan]

To me that simply says you atr just so used to your anxiety that you don't fear it. Like I never fear anxiety either. Yet it can still happen. They have been happening to you for so long, that you are used to them by now. Good in some ways. Means the fear is no longer there. Try ask yourself has any real danger ever come from your anxiety? The answer is most probably ' NO '. So why do it happen to you? Probably because you expect it to happen to you. We get a lot of people with anxiety, who if they are having a day without anxiety, think something must be wrong. Anxiety is the norm for them. A day without anxiety makes them worry. So they go looking for their anxiety. I know it all sounds strange. Imagine you done the same thing every day for years. You would have it mapped out in your brain. Because you were so used to it. The same can be said about anxiety. People are used to it. So they expect it to happen. Try and accept that you can have anxiety free days. That anxiety doesn't always have to happen. See if that changes anything for you.

 

[Rmortensen84]

To me that simply says you atr just so used to your anxiety that you don't fear it. Like I never fear anxiety either. Yet it can still happen. They have been happening to you for so long, that you are used to them by now. Good in some ways. Means the fear is no longer there. Try ask yourself has any real danger ever come from your anxiety? The answer is most probably ' NO '. So why do it happen to you? Probably because you expect it to happen to you. We get a lot of people with anxiety, who if they are having a day without anxiety, think something must be wrong. Anxiety is the norm for them. A day without anxiety makes them worry. So they go looking for their anxiety. I know it all sounds strange. Imagine you done the same thing every day for years. You would have it mapped out in your brain. Because you were so used to it. The same can be said about anxiety. People are used to it. So they expect it to happen. Try and accept that you can have anxiety free days. That anxiety doesn't always have to happen. See if that changes anything for you.

Thank you very much for taking the time to answer - I will try to take your advice with me and allow myself to have anxiety free days ... - You may well be right in that anxiety for the anxiety ..

 

[JoshhLadd]

Alright pal fellow mechanic here to i also suffer with the breathing difficulties sometimes feel like i int breatging properly or that i cant get a nice deep full breatg i have the palpitations to and i hyper ventilate must be suttin in the oil...

 

[Rmortensen84]

Alright pal fellow mechanic here to i also suffer with the breathing difficulties sometimes feel like i int breatging properly or that i cant get a nice deep full breatg i have the palpitations to and i hyper ventilate must be suttin in the oil...

What I'm sorry to hear - I know the feeling 100% can have it running for several hours in some periods when it is bad and without thoughts only physical symptoms - Do you feel the same way?

 

[JoshhLadd]

Yea i do mate if i get really busy n stuck into something witch requires my full attention i wont even think about my breathing then the moment i stop im like oh yeah breathing thing is back and so on its frustrating.

 

[Rmortensen84]

Know it 100% - But nice I'm not alone with it .. - But sorry to hear you feel that way! As you say the best means for me is also to deal with something that interests me or where I need to use brain capacity on something else

 

[JoshhLadd]

Thats what i tend to do mate just keep busy mines qorse when im not doing nothing

 

[Rmortensen84]

You are right but my experience with my anxiety is that what you do must be something that does not exceed your abilities as a human being and it is individual from person to person. My anxiety / depersonalization was aggravated by working as a mechanic as I have problems with my overview / concentration so could not cope with the shifts between cars and the pace at the same time as you have to maintain the overview.
Today I am on early retirement and work 4 days a week 4 hours at a time in a metal workshop - That calm has had a positive effect on my anxiety and ocd. Society is sick today in terms of what is required of people.

 

[imsotired]

it is amazing that you have overcome most of your anxiety. it encourages me to get better

 

[Joshua1]

Most of what you mentioned stems from breathing issues. Anxiety causes these things, but if you can control your breathing and relax your mind anxiety is easier to control.